Mayo: Floyd made ballroom fans take notice

LOS ANGELES -- Some school children will get a new learning center. A dance professional will get her own studio. What Floyd Mayweather got out of "Dancing with the Stars" remains to be seen. What others will receive because of his involvement will live for years.

The dual duel of boxing and dance has ended. The fight continues, though the Samba remains unlearned, after Mayweather and partner Karina Smirnoff were the fourth couple eliminated from the popular ABC dance show Tuesday night.

One night earlier, they were faces on a moving van, campaigning for votes. But late Monday, a Mayweather camp member tried driving the vehicle under a low building overhang, and the front of the van's shell got shredded.

By Tuesday night, Mayweather's future on the show was in the same shape.

The first question I asked was whether he was relieved to be away from it all. Entertainment reporters were not shy about rooting against him. A television reporter from Dallas actually shrieked when Mark Cuban was saved, essentially assuring Mayweather's exit. The axiom about no cheering in the press box didn't apply.

"What kind of question is that? Of course he's not relieved," Smirnoff said.

Mayweather's grin betrayed him.

Absolutely, he wanted to stay. But he believed other contestants were giving more time to the effort than he could, that it meant more to them, and that his exit was well-timed.

He got four weeks on national television to promote his Dec. 8 welterweight title defense against Ricky Hatton, then was eliminated just in time for seven weeks of unimpeded training.

"If I was going, I'd rather go at the beginning of training camp than at the end of training camp," he said. "At the end of training camp, of course, I'm trying to focus. My main focus is the fight. So if I'm going to go out with a bang, I'd rather go out right now."

He certainly managed that much.

Remember that Las Vegas elementary school whose students sent Mayweather and Smirnoff a poster last week to support their dance efforts, as shown on Monday's program? What you didn't see was that Mayweather, through his charitable foundation, later pledged a sizable donation to Matt Kelly Elementary School for a learning center in his name. In time, he has similar plans in Grand Rapids.

After the show, he thanked Smirnoff with the promise of a new dance studio.

"I'm stunned," she said. "People just don't do that."

When they first got together, they clashed so badly that Smirnoff walked out and several times thereafter cut training sessions short.

"From the beginning, she said, 'I want somebody else,' and I was like, 'I want somebody else, too,'" Mayweather said. "I heard she was Mario Lopez's girlfriend and I was like, 'I don't want to dance with nobody's girlfriend.'"

Smirnoff was shocked by Mayweather's bravado, his outlandish materialism, and his relative indifference to huge chunks of cash. Mayweather claims to have won $300,000 on football this season. Smirnoff thought he was just a blowhard who liked hearing himself.

"My opinion of you changed drastically as we went along," she told him.

The celebrity standing opposite Mayweather in the bottom two was Melanie Brown, aka Mel B, aka Scary Spice, of the Spice Girls.

But the competition effectively ended when Cuban -- the only dancer with a lower score than Mayweather this week -- was declared safe, after his National Basketball Association team, the Dallas Mavericks, sent mass e-mails campaigning for votes.

Mayweather was ecstatic to participate. But sometimes, in the middle of the night, he feels his left shoulder twitch, the same initial sensation when firing a jab. That's when he knows he is dreaming about boxing.

He does not dream about the Paso Doble.

"It was a blessing just to get to this level," he said. "Everybody thinks this show is about competing. It's really about competing with yourself."

Mayweather lost because of a polarized popular vote. Message boards alternately flamed and embraced him. As usual, there was no ambivalence.

Whether Mayweather ever changes those opinions is irrelevant. They translate to pay-per-view sales and add to his lasting celebrity.

At the conclusion of the dance, the one person whose opinion did change, and who was eliminated along with him, understood the method.

"At the end of the day," Smirnoff said, "it's better to be loved or hated than to be not even noticed. So the fact that we got extremes from both emotions is terrific. Thanks for hating. And thanks for loving."